On the Trail of Genghis Khan

Tim Cope's trek is an astonishing accomplishment--especially for a young man who had never ridden a horse before starting. It's both informative and very moving. I started watching it as research for a novel,started making notes, but ended up just letting it play out as I became so caught up in it.

Cope did almost all of the filming himself, which means that he must have covered much of the trail twice--once to go ahead and set up his camera, and then backtracking to ride up to it. That, and backtracking to retrieve his camera after riding away from it.

He lets us in on his best and worst moments of the trip and seems completely unguarded.

My only complaint is that I wish he had had a better camera--or maybe whoever transferred the images to DVD just didn't do that great a job. I know that video formats advance almost weekly but the image quality, by today's standards, seems a bit fuzzy and washed out. Even the frame and titling for the episode menu on the DVD look soft to me. At one point you get a look at his camera in the special features section, and it doesn't exactly look like a high-end model. I assume he was limited by what he could carry and his budget.

Fortunately, Cope is an excellent cinematographer with a fine eye. He composes many beautiful frames and the camera is rock steady for the most part. The sound is also pretty good.

Whatever camera he used, it's astonishing that he managed to keep it working through the whole three years under the extreme temperatures he suffered through. At least, he never talks about any equipment failures.

Clearly, he wanted our attention on the peoples, the animals, and the landscapes he shows to us--and he does a superb job.

Maybe the best travel piece I've ever seen.